12 years later, talk of Chan, 'Rounders' alive again?

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, July 15, 2010

Long before poker players had celebrity, Johnny Chan made a name for himself with his role in the 1998 Matt Damon film “Rounders.”

If Doyle Brunson's book “Super System” is recognized as the bible of poker, “Rounders” is its “Godfather.” It's the most accurate depiction of the poker scene on film.

In the movie, there's a scene where the protagonist Mike McDermott (played by Damon) sits in a $300-$600 cash game in Atlantic City at Chan's table armed with only $6,000. After folding most of his hands for the next hour, McDermott decides to make a play against Chan with rags — poker slang for junk cards.

Damon said last week there is potential for a sequel to the iconic film while Chan is making a serious run at his third World Series of Poker Main Event championship.

“The guys who wrote ‘Ocean's 13' wrote ‘Rounders,' and we used to joke on set that they were doing the wrong movie,” Damon told rawvegas.tv. “I know Edward (Norton) would do it. I know the director would do it. I bet (John) Malkovich and (John) Turturro would do it, though I haven't talked to either of those guys. If we had a really good story, it's a question of making it happen.”

If filmed with a modern slant, it would be 12 years after the original.

Would McDermott be an online poker whiz? Is he broke after winning the $30,000 in the final scene and bound for Las Vegas? Are McDermott's conniving friend “Worm” (played by Norton) and the evil “Teddy KGB” (Malkovich) still in the mix?

“We always saw Worm as the kind of guy that would be down in Costa Rica at this point,” Damon said. “It would be fun to do. If there was a good script for it, we'd all do it.”

As for Chan, his status is set in reality. He finished Day 4 as one of the WSOP chip leaders with $1.59 million. One of only three (two living) players to successfully defend a Main Event championship when he did it in 1987-88, he's deep into the money for the first time since 2002.

The winning hand of Chan's '88 championship vs. Eric Seidel was an effective backdrop, as McDermott repeatedly watched it on old videotape as inspiration. A 2010 win could do the same for its sequel.

WSOP update: This year's Main Event will go down as the second largest in the 41-year history of the tournament with 7,319 entries creating a total prize pool of $68,798,600.

First-place money will be $8,944,138, and each of the top-eight finishers will be guaranteed a payout in excess of $1 million.

Players hit the money late Tuesday night with the top 747 players all taking home at least $19,263 and will play down to the final table on Saturday.

Got a poker question or comment? E-mail Chuck at cblount@express-news.net.